Rating: 
Summary: Only Vonnegut Could Pull It Off
Review: This is an excellent book that examines the nature of war, its horrors, both psychological and physical, and about Time Travel and Tralfamadore. Whether or not Billy's experiences there are real or not is open to interpretation, it is just an extension of showing his isolation.This book follows no plot and is continually switching time periods. It allows Vonnegut to make his book as diametrically opposite from any other war novel as possible. The very structure of the book seems to deemphasize war. In effect, this makes the story a strange and wonderful creation, needless to say powerful. The story follows Billy Pilgrim (note the name: it is critical to two aspects of his character). Pilgrim is an awkward young man sent to fight in World War II. Yet, the story also follows his experiences in a hospital after the war with an old eccentric named Rosewater, his experience as an opthomologist, his relationship with his family, and, finally, his delusions of Tralfamadore. Certain aspects are included later, such as his dad throwing him into a YMCA swimming pool. This is a novel where nothing is as it seems. At first, it looks as if Billy is doing fine after the war. He lives comfortably, has a profitable practice, and seems happy. Yet, he is tormented by many things, experiences he can't get over, and finally the Tralfamadore visions. A masterfully written novel by Vonnegut.
Rating: 
Summary: I didn't like it
Review: I don't think the book was very good. It didn't have any tension at all. It is an anti war book that didn't show the really bad sides of war. I think it shows how thinks that happened not only in war but mostly in his family and surrounding screw up his life. I wouldn't want to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Profound, humorous and cathartic
Review: Vonnegut's opus. An immeasurably thought-provoking and entertaining book, based partially on the author's experiences in WWII. Humorous without detracting from the critical insights. This book will not tell you anything you didn't already know; it WILL tell you things in a way you had never thought of. Semi-autobiographical, semi-fictional, and completely enthralling. Read this book if you want to understand mankind a little better, or could use a good laugh and a good cry. A nice, short read well worth the time.
Rating: 
Summary: Serious, but good fun
Review: This is a serious book about war seemly hidden by Vonnegut. The book jumps around a good bit, as the main character is unstuck in time. Because of this and the lack of character interaction, many people may find the book a hard read. However, the book is well worth the effort. It certainly gave me a new perspective on conventional war.
Rating:
Summary: The most moving book I have ever read
Review: Well I want to keep this brief, but don't take that as I don't love this book! This is quite possibly the best book I have ever read, and it brought me to tears. I couldn't put it down, it took me less than a span of 24 hours to read. I am now in post finished mourning that I will have to follow it up with some poor book, that cannot possibly live up to this masterpiece. I am thinking I will try Catch-22. Read this book!!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Little Book
Review: This is a great little book. It's the story of Billy Pilgrim, a kind of awkward nobody who floats through life without really living it, and who becomes successful in spite of himself. There are two main themes in the book. The first has to do with the way Billy's perspective on life is affected by his ability to travel through time. The book too jumps between periods in his life, revealing a bit more about Billy's life with each jump. Billy is eventually abducted by aliens who tell him that time travel isn't a strange thing at all; the aliens can see time all at once as a sort of panorama. They even know how the universe will end. This may explain Billy's way of life: he never takes action because he already knows how it all ends. So do we. In the begining of the book Vonnegut tells us how the book ends. Further, as each character is introduced we get a bit of his future (like how he dies). This technique may seem a bit anticlimactic, but it lets you see life through Billy's time traveling mind. By the end of the book I felt like I didn't care about anything in real life either since I knew how the universe was going to end :) The second theme is the firebombing of Dresden by the allies. Kurt Vonnegut was there himself and he pops up unobstrusively throughout the book. Billy is completely numbed by the war and by its horrible horrible violence. By the time the bombing starts you've already experienced the petty nature of war, the tiny details that mean the difference between life and death for tired, miserable soldiers. We don't really know who the good guys are. He talks about jews and gypsies being turned into soap by the Nazis with the same dispassionate prose as he uses to describe German civilians being turned to dust by the allies. This theme is especially timely as our leaders prepare to march us into one war after another. The two themes merge together to make you really feel how insignificant life's problems are, and how important it is to focus on and enjoy the happy times. A final bonus is that you get all of this in a very efficient dose. The book is short (only ~200 pages); you'll finish it in a day or two, and be ready for your next Vonnegut book.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely not a "Questionable CLassic"
Review: This deserves every star I gave it. The "and so it goes" after almost every death of anything has great meaning. Vonnegut is refering to the fact that Billy is unstck in time and knows the past as well as the future. Hes saying "so it goes" in connotation to the timeline. Anybody who gave thius book under 5 or 4 stars should read it again. Its a great book and when i finished the last page, realized this. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: Intricate and voluptuous and enchanted and absurd
Review: Rarely is there more madness than when humans go to war and the most appropriate way to write about war is in a mode of madness. Consider "Slaughterhouse-Five" a book written by a sane writer in a mode of madness. Meet a protagonist on a pilgrimage through various stages of insanity. Experience that his insanity feels quite sane sometimes. Think about a world where a slaughterhouse becomes a sanctuary. Ask yourself if you would not choose to live in the fourth dimension where time is timeless and death has no dominion if you had seen the senseless slaughter of war. The planet Tralfamadore may be the sane alternative to the planet Earth. "Slaughterhouse-Five" is a fine novel in the tradition of satire and unconventional, innovative writing, best represented by classics like Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" and Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy". The book can be hilariously funny, but it is deadly serious about dying. In my opinion, the recurrent comment "so it goes" is just one of the ways in which the anti-hero and the narrator of the book deal with the horror and absurdity of dying. Vonnegut's style is fluid, and the short paragraphs of the book make for easy reading. It is really very enjoyable from a pure "reading experience" view, despite the non-linear structure and the parts that read like a weird fairy-tale. Of course, there is no moral in the book. What is the morality in war? Violent death makes no sense. Violent death is as absurd as life gets. And absurdity invites laughter. It's the only way to deal with it short of going insane or joining a cult that has All The Answers. And Dresden, this doomed city - how neatly Vonnegut's description of its deceptive, dreamlike splendor summarizes his book: "The Americans arrived in Dresden at five in the afternoon. The boxcar doors were opened, and the doorways framed the loveliest city that most of the Americans had ever seen. The skyline was intricate and voluptuous and enchanted and absurd."
Rating:
Summary: So it goes...
Review: The description of Slaughtehouse Five as either an anti-war or science-fiction novel isn't necessarily a negative, or even incorrect label, but, let's say instead, a restrictive one. It would be similar to calling "Beowolf" a poem or "Dr. Strangelove" a black comedy. It is a truthful assesment, it just doesn't do the work justice. Slaughterhouse is a brilliant satire/black comedy of not just war and science-fiction, but humanity, love, death, friendship, and any other ideals that we as a race hold dear. It is this that causes the biggest problem with Vonnegut's appreciation by mass audiences, "How can he make fun of that?" Simple, he just brings in a space-craft. My favorite character of not only Slaughterhouse, but all of Vonnegut's collective work is by far and away Kilgore Trout. The essential paperback writer, and perhaps an insight to what might have been with Vonnegut (consider what would have happened to him had his work been released at a less tolerable time-period during the history of American Literature and you will see what I mean) Trout is a pat on the back for any independent artist, regardless of the genre, that the effect your work has on a small group is not lessened by the size of your audience, but, instead, confirmed by the reaction of the few. He is also hilarious and brilliant. Other then Trout, however, the story revolves around the life of Billy Pilgram. Not the life as you or I, or a lesser writer even would see it, but as according to the view of Tralfamadorians, an alien race who has a greater understanding of the view-point of time then humans ever will. So it is through their eyes that we witness the fascinating life of Pilgrim. From his days in captivity by the German army during World War II leading up to the fire-bombing of Dresden, to his abduction by aliens and use as a museum piece as he "mates" with porn-star Montana Wildhack, through marriage, plane crashes, insanity, and death we not only watch his fascinating life, but find ourselves laughing at our own ridiculous society. If you enjoy satire, black comedy, and poking fun of all that you hold dear, then Slaughterhouse is defenitely for you. If not... then read it anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Randomly Brilliant
Review: Vonnegut based many of his novels on his experiences in World War II. Slaughterhouse Five is probably his most notorious and well recieved novel he has written. Being a big Vonnegut fan, I would not go as far as that. Though it is an incredible book, it is a little toned down and obvious in its social commentary. Vonnegut seems to be less sarcastic in this novel. In contradiction, it could also be argued that this book cannot be as sarcastic because of its serious topic. This book seems to be Vonneguts strongest attempt at a serious and affective anti-war novel. Of cours, Vonnegut does not take the conventional methods to preaching the evils of war. This novel somehow combines time travel, alien abducttions, WWII, along with Billy Pilgrim's, the main character, whole life. Bill becomes unstruck in time and no longer travels in a chronological order. He leaps from moment to moment in his life. Though this idea maybe hard to follow at first, and it is deffinitely difficult to see the relevence of an alien culture that resembles toilet plungers to World War II, the book eventually ties together extremely well. He manages to use these other unrelated topics to help underline his major themes. Whether it is Vonnegut's best or not,it is a brilliant book that I would reccomend to anyone.
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